del.ico.us tags: 2008election ie, http://del.icio.us/kkennedy/2008election
Some notes:
Debate info:
Political quizzes: Holy frack...I think I'm a liberal now. This whole health care thing has really made me think.
High compatibility scores for HillaryClinton, ChrisDodd, DennisKucinich, MikeGravel.
I have no real compatibility at all with the Republican candidates; top ones are RonPaul and JohnMcCain.
Points I'm interested in:
- War in Iraq
- Negotiation with Iran and Syria in the Middle East issues
- Civil liberties
- Campaign finance reform (?)
- Healthcare reform
Issues to review:
Candidates and their major points:
Republicans
- Perceive as running as "fear of Hillary/Obama"
- Perceive as running on being NYC mayor during 9/11
- Disagree with perception as believer in unitary executive
- Disagree with stance on war
- Perceive as principled
- Agree with his stance (against) torture
- Disagree with stance on war
- Too many forced jokes in talks; annoying
- Seems to (explicitly) think there is no price for Iraq not worth paying
- Agree with pro-nuclear power stance
- His comments (in Aug. '07, Aspen Inst.) about campaign troubles seemed a little flippant. Maybe all of them do this, though
- Perceive as faux-libertarian-wannabe
- Disagree with stance on war
- Perceive as political
- Disagree with stance on war
- Disagree with his stance on evolution
- Disagree with stance on war
- Disagree with his extreme views on abortion
- Out there, but consistent
- Hard-core libertarian
Wants to go back to GoldStandard; "paper doesn't make any sense". Review in CategoryEconomics
Orcrist caused some controversy with his Congressional record, but Glenn Greenwald brought another liberal perspective. Interesting. He's definitely controversial.
- Disagree with his extreme views on abortion
- Agree with stance on war
- Polling most strongly in local straw polls; not even in some national polls
- Disagree with his extreme views on abortion
Disagree with his extreme views on obscenity legislation H.R. 4239 (108th): Parents' Empowerment Act (this never made it out of committee...but wow)
- Disagree with stance on war
Terrorism ad: sensationalist
He makes statement that a Mexican border crosser has recently (? 2007/11/13) been sent to Guantanamo. ToDo - Find reference
- Seems like a FAR, FAR back in the pack wannabe attempt to raise some attention
- Disagree with stance on war
- Disagree with his stance on evolution
Democrats
- Perceive as political to a fault
Disagree with lack of statement on freeing debate coverage (see Lessig for background)
- Agree with his stance against war; once we're in, he says trying to stabilize/minimize (fix ASAP; remove troops in 16 months)
On The Issues page: looks pretty good
Thinks nuclear power ok if we safeguard against waste & terrorism. (Sep 2007)
- America cannot sanction torture; no loopholes or exceptions. (Sep 2007)
- Agree with (present) stance against war (he did originally vote for it) (remove troops in 10 months)
- Agree with stance on "Two Americas"
- Disagree with stance against nuclear power (disappointing)
- If we're not going to use nuclear, but want to get rid of oil dependence, how exactly is that going to work? Realism important here
- * Agree with stance against war (remove all troops ASAP)
- Experienced
- Agree with (present) stance against war (he did originally vote for it)
- Consistent
- Agree with stance against war
- Agree with stance on telecom immunity
- Agree with (present) stance against war (he did originally vote for it)
- Consistent
Holy crap, this guy's been hardcore forever! Go!
- Excluded from 30 October 2007 debate due to polling numbers
Did his own online debate/rebuttal afterwards Main YouTube page; includes links
- Advocate of direct democracy
Note: Consistent candidates, of both parties, appear to be at bottom popularity-wise. Is political complexity necessary for popularity? Or does "politics as usual" demonize ideologically consistent candidates, as a threat to the status quo?